Coffee shops in Oregon that aren’t even in Portland

Later, I’d see the same barista manning the counter and squeegeeing condensation from the windows at the Blue Scorcher Bakery Cafe, in downtown Astoria, an organic, vegetarian cooperative with a quixotic magazine rack. Viewed through cynical eyes, the coffee shop might look like fodder for the satirical television series ”Portlandia,” which pokes fun at the region’s cultural quirks and earnest, progressive ideals. (March 25, 2011)

Things in Portland, as described by the city’s daily paper, the Portland Oregonian

Puppet shows

It sounds like a “Portlandia” sketch, but the “Quick ‘N’ Dirty” Puppet Slam is for real.

A bike fair/film fest

It’s an event so steeped in the eccentric ways of our fair city that it almost seems like something cooked up by the spoofmeisters of “Portlandia”: Scores — nay, hundreds — of bicyclists turning a modest commercial intersection into a spontaneous springtime fair, with craft beers flowing, DJs spinning, bikes and bikewear being flaunted, bike gear being raffled off, and, most importantly, independent short films about the world  — nay, the universe — of bicycling screening in a theater just steps from the action.

A bicycle-based talk show

Although it seems like something from a “Portlandia” sketch, “The Pedal Powered Talk Show” is the real deal.

Stocking stuffers

RadCat cat toys: These handmade pillows, collars and toys are made with recycled, vintage materials and are “Portlandia-style cute” …

Restaurants

In Queens

Highfalutin grilled cheese sandwiches, coffee-geek coffee, and craft beer together at last. Yes, it sounds like a “Portlandia” parody, but we’re not ashamed to admit that we like it. (New York magazine)

In Austin, Texas

What with its devotion to today’s locavore and organic philosophies, 24 Diner could star in an episode of “Portlandia”: it’s very serious about what it does. (Texas Monthly)

In Boulder, Colo.

From its top-notch farmers market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, to its “Portlandia”-(t)ype “Is it local? Yes, it’s local” menu options, you pretty much can’t miss, anywhere you hit. (Colorado Springs Independent)

In Portland

But this isn’t just some dutiful, farmy, “Portlandia”-esque ideal …  (GQ)

Pork festivals

This is the third year of the Cochon 555 tour, a production of Atlanta-based pig promoter Brady Lowe, which hit Los Angeles for the first time this year. The strip-club fracas after last year’s Oregon event, which began when a renowned local chef objected to the trophy awarded to an Iowan pig and ended at 2 a.m. with tasers, contusions, arrests and Lowe’s broken leg, could have been a sketch from “Portlandia.” (LA Weekly)

Spas

Billed as a “retail relaxation station,” Oasis carries everything from terrariums by Twig to bespoke lemonade by Sips and Bites to vegan beauty by Meow Meow Tweet, which sounds like a “Portlandia” sketch but is actually a line of handmade apothecary products. (Racked NY)

Liking things on Facebook

IFC also has another clip for you, but you have to “like” “Portlandia” on Facebook before you can actually watch it. Which, ironically, seems like something out of a “Portlandia” sketch. (Crushable)

Commenting on websites

Of course, not everyone finds the city’s oddballs so charming. When the website Deadline Hollywood first posted about “Portlandia,” it inspired such ultraserious rants that it could’ve been a “Portlandia” sketch in itself. (Los Angeles Times)

Strange public sex

A Portland couple was arrested last night and accused of disorderly conduct after police heard multiple reports that a woman was “tied up in a car with duct tape over her mouth.”

The police thought they were dealing with a potential kidnapping case. Turns out the captive was just enjoying Valentine’s Day with her loving boyfriend.

The story reads something like a discarded “Portlandia” plot line-complete with a Subaru cameo. (Gawker)

Jodie Foster in “Carnage”

Foster’s performance makes the character resemble a really, really intense resident of politically correct “Portlandia.” (Creative Loafing)

Los Angeles hipsters excited about Vanilla Ice

“I personally liked it because we’ve been doing ukulele covers of Vanilla Ice on tour for years and years. It’s great, like, seeing the master,” says a local and possible “Portlandia” extra. (Curbed LA)

Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ children’s book

Sometimes things get almost too Portlandy, as though the characters from the brilliant TV satire “Portlandia” have gotten lost in Narnia. (New York Times)

C.S. Lewis meets “Portlandia” in Wildwood, the debut novel by Colin Meloy, frontman of the Decemberists and brother of “Apothecary” author Maile Meloy. (USA Today)

Prue, the book’s bicycle-pedaling, steamed-milk-sipping, library-book-addicted adolescent female protagonist acts like a child extra from the hipster-satire TV show “Portlandia.” (Creative Loafing)

Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis themselves

(As) they walk along the road in Forest Park, they could pass for the king and queen of Portlandia. (Portland Oregonian)

Sarah McLachlan

She’s sort of a hyper-ethical eco-mother, the type of individual who could easily be lampooned on “Portlandia,” even though she calls Vancouver, B.C., home. (Seattle Weekly)

Barn raisings

The very phrase seems somehow so very Portland, as if would inspire writers for the “Portlandia” TV show to immediately stand up and take notice: an urban barn raising. (Portland Architecture)

Media criticism about coverage of Portland

And we were all over it when The Wall Street Journal did a profile/real-estate story on Stumptown Coffee founder Duane Sorenson of Portland and managed to out-Portland “Portlandia,” the IFC show which purports to poke gentle fun at the city’s people but couldn’t have come up with a guy like Sorenson on a bet. (Seattle Weekly)